I'll take insufferable hipsterism anyday if it means that we don't go back to the days when Becks and Bass were high-end imports and the only place that made hamburgers with fresh beef was your house. F*ck whether it's "cool" or not, the US dining and drinking scene has improved in leaps and bounds in the last 20 years as towns of all sizes try to emulate the quality and diversity of places known for it. Get over the "hipster" vibe and enjoy a good IPA and an avocado mushroom burger.

As in all It Cities, Portland's status is codified by its need for recognition from outsiders, embellished by how effectively it commercializes that attention, and sustained by the intensity of its need to prove that you don't have to live in New York or L.A. to be surrounded by awesome musicians, world-class theater, and pretentious Sazerac culture.

Except that you sort of do.

Ah, there's the punchline: "Everywhere except NYC and LA suck." He sounds miserable so hopefully he'll just stay home next time.

Rapmaster2000:After visiting this hotbed of cool, I can attest that it's every bit as entertaining as San Diego's savagely dullor Baltimore's prosaic Inner Harbor.

Dude, your problem is that you went to the mall and were shocked when it was just like every other mall. This is because you're not cool.

Somehow "Gaslamp District" was tagged out. Oh, and that place is savagely dull. A lot of cities have that. Atlanta's Buckhead (don't let anyone tell you it was better before Ray Lewis - it was always for tourists) sucks. Chicago's Lincoln Park is for aging fratboys. South Beach is lame. Sixth Street in Austin is for meatheads. What is this guy's point?

dc0012c:I'll take insufferable hipsterism anyday if it means that we don't go back to the days when Becks and Bass were high-end imports and the only place that made hamburgers with fresh beef was your house. F*ck whether it's "cool" or not, the US dining and drinking scene has improved in leaps and bounds in the last 20 years as towns of all sizes try to emulate the quality and diversity of places known for it. Get over the "hipster" vibe and enjoy a good IPA and an avocado mushroom burger.

I grew up in New Orleans, where good food and booze was always aplenty.

Throwing a slice of flavorless US grown avocado on food is the height of hipster cooking.

/a Limburger sandwich--two slices of fresh-baked, heavy white bread and a thick slice of Limburger--used to be a working man's lunch. I await the debut of the artisanal Limburger sandwich. Or should I say torte.

I think it has been pretty well shredded so far in this thread, but wow. What a stupid article. The point the author is trying to make, as far as I can tell, is "I was a hipster before being a hipster was cool."

Also, this:

dc0012c:I'll take insufferable hipsterism anyday if it means that we don't go back to the days when Becks and Bass were high-end imports and the only place that made hamburgers with fresh beef was your house. F*ck whether it's "cool" or not, the US dining and drinking scene has improved in leaps and bounds in the last 20 years as towns of all sizes try to emulate the quality and diversity of places known for it. Get over the "hipster" vibe and enjoy a good IPA and an avocado mushroom burger.

I'll take insufferable hipsterism anyday if it means that we don't go back to the days when Becks and Bass were high-end imports and the only place that made hamburgers with fresh beef was your house. F*ck whether it's "cool" or not, the US dining and drinking scene has improved in leaps and bounds in the last 20 years as towns of all sizes try to emulate the quality and diversity of places known for it. Get over the "hipster" vibe and enjoy a good IPA and an avocado mushroom burger.

I grew up in New Orleans, where good food and booze was always aplenty.

Throwing a slice of flavorless US grown avocado on food is the height of hipster cooking.

cgraves67:I'll still take variety over conformity even if it means that some of the variety is subpar.

Except that these provincial wannabe Portlands are all racing to conform to a template that actually squeezes out variety. As long as it means I can get good beer and food, and there's a club that books the bands that I want to see, I don't mind too much. But do admit that these local scenes aren't developing anything unique, they're trying to create instant Brooklyns.

First, he's bemoaning cities that used to be honest (dull) places for authentic salt-of-the-earth people to live their lives, and then become a pretentious Mecca for bohemians. Okay, I've heard that line before.

But then, he whines about how unimpressed he was by all the "it" cities he visited. Dude, if you're the one visiting, then what the Hell is the argument here? They're gentrifying your neighborhood into something edgy, and dammit these neighborhoods aren't edgy enough! It's the hipster version of "this food sucks and the portions are too small."

Nevermind the fact that if all these towns decided to be Plano, Illinois, they'd still be unimpressive and exactly alike if you visited them---except now you're visiting a town whose dining options are a Subway, and it's closed on sundays after 5.

Lumpmoose:As in all It Cities, Portland's status is codified by its need for recognition from outsiders, embellished by how effectively it commercializes that attention, and sustained by the intensity of its need to prove that you don't have to live in New York or L.A. to be surrounded by awesome musicians, world-class theater, and pretentious Sazerac culture.

Except that you sort of do.

Ah, there's the punchline: "Everywhere except NYC and LA suck." He sounds miserable so hopefully he'll just stay home next time.

If this jackass wants banal, boring culture, I kindly invite him to Rapid shiatty, South Dakota. His stupid pretentious ass will do what I want to do: blow my brains out rather than imagine the next 30 years here. I would kill to move back to East Tennessee. I'm trying but am having no luck.

Oh good, another thread where taste and preference gets to be rated. News flash. We are all individuals. Our tastes in art, women, men, beer, food, color, housing, cars, etc. will vary. It's a personal thing and truly unique to the individual. If this were not the case wouldn't it stand to reason that places we individually abhor go out of business? After all, we don't like it why would anyone else go there?

Lumpmoose:Ah, there's the punchline: "Everywhere except NYC and LA suck." He sounds miserable so hopefully he'll just stay home next time.

Having done my time in New York, and having left, I like the perspective I have on it after the fact. Cities like NY and LA... everyone moves to with expectations. Like, nobody moves to NY or LA because they want to goof around, maybe get a job, hang out with buddies, drink a bunch and occasionally fall asleep on the lawn. People move there because they aspire to become something more than they are, and they see the city as instrumental to that ambition. The costs are high, you have to hustle constantly to keep your head above water, so to justify your own choices and sacrifices, you have to constantly denigrate everyone who has made the choice to live anywhere except for the city you are struggling so hard to make it in. If their lives are easier, it's because, in some way, they are not as serious as you. And if their smaller, cheaper city has anything going for it, any sort of scene, it's only because, in your mind, the "hipsters" there are desperate to make their city resemble your city. Because, of course, your city is the only real city.

The thing that bothered me the most about New York is that any kind of success I had for myself inspired resent in the people around me, and I felt myself slipping into that as well, resenting people who managed to find success, instead of being happy for them. It's not how I want to interact with the world, and I'm much happier for having left.